Photograph by Bruce Haley
The Alphabet of Light
Bamboo
Until today, I knew just about nothing about bamboo. I am in a neighborhood library branch talking with a refugee from Burma. Salai worked for the Burmese government in agricultural development, and then for 15 years with the United Nations program on community resource management of remote villages. He tells me certain bamboo species only flower every 50 years. The seed’s fruit, the size of an adult hand, are encased in rich jade-green skin, the flowers drape. After flowering, bamboo die.
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